The government and the nation's major electric power companies have entered the final stage of negotiations with Russia for consigning the enrichment of uranium for fuel in nuclear power plants to Atomenergoprom, or Atomprom, which is to be established as Russia's state-run monopoly for the nuclear energy industry, according to sources close to the deal.

The Japanese side plans to initially consign the enrichment of uranium that was recovered from spent fuel rods and has been stored in Britain.

In the future, the Japanese side plans to consign to Russia the enrichment of natural uranium produced in mines to which Japan has obtained the rights in Russia and Kazakhstan.

The Japanese and Russian governments aim to reach a basic agreement over the deal at a summit level meeting by the summer, and will also negotiate the signing of a bilateral nonproliferation accord to prevent nuclear material from getting into third parties' hands, which is essential to consigning the works, the sources said.

Under Japan's nuclear fuel recycling scheme, fissionable uranium and plutonium are recovered from spent fuel rods, and the uranium is enriched to be used as nuclear fuel again.